Grandfather Elijah Diary

In The Journal of Hélène Berr, we are given the first hand account of a young Jewish woman in Paris during the German occupation. This primary source provides a strong insight into how Paris was changing before Hélène’s eyes. Hélène started keeping a journal to preserve memories, but over time, as the German occupation started to change her life, it became something more. Her writing became darker, because so did her outlook. For one, towards the end of the

As Eliezer is liberated from the concentration camp by American troops, he is left a scarred orphan. All of his immediate family is dead, and he is in an unfamiliar country, miles away from his home. Despite what has

Upon his arrival in Birkenau, Eliezer and his father are separated from his mother and sisters, whom they never see again. In the first of many “selections” that Eliezer describes in the memoir, the Jews are evaluated to determine whether they should be

Our eyes have barely adjusted to the half burnt candles in the synagogue, when we are yanked into historical reality. Daily life shifts abruptly and dramatically for everyone on the day the soldiers arrested Jewish leaders in Elie’s little community called Sighet. The Jews were ordered out of their homes with only a few personal belongings, placed into cattle cars and transported into captivity. Soon Elie would see his mom and sister for the last time. He and his father remain together for the duration of the story as they endure horror after unspeakable horror in the concentration camps.

The French originally built these camps to receive Spanish refugees. (“Nazi Transit Camps: Drancy”). The camps were built for about 700 to stay, but approximately 7,000 people were held there, they were again faced with poor conditions. Of the 7,000 people there 3,000 died and the 4,000 remaining were shipped off to Auschwitz where they were sent to be killed. (“Nazi Transit Camps: Drancy”) Upon arriving at Drancy the Jews were subject to violent searches, and their heads were shaved. Everyone that went through the camps were all eventually sent to Auschwitz and murdered, there was approximately 1,000 people every 2/3 days murdered at Auschwitz. (“The

The Jews transferred here were of the elderly, and some of Europe’s most prominent scholars, artists, and composers. This was to maintain the façade of being a model camp of music and art. They were also some of the German Army’s decorated veterans of World War One. From 1941 to 1944, there would be approximately 140,000 Jews transferred to Theresienstadt; none were to be protected from the Nazis’

On July 16, 1942 Jews were rounded up and taken to Velodrome d’ Hiver, were Madeleine

Many have heard of the Holocaust and where it has taken place. BUT, many may have not known that once upon of time in the 1940’s the French became apart of the Holocaust. Of course the French wouldn’t be a topic because during this time the United States had acknowledged Vichy Regime as the official government, which means they signed off and left them to be their own and no longer the U.S’s problem. Furthermore, the French had issues with the Germans as far as the Vichy disputing territory that was placed under the German administration. It was said that the tendency of the Germans to exercise arbitrary power in the occupied zone, made it difficult for Vichy to assert its authority there.

The horrors started to dismantle when the Hungarian fascists arrived and started collaborating with the Nazis in 1940. From that moment forward her family and her life would never be the same. Jews began to be restricted of many human rights and in turn received discrimination and shame. A few years later in 1944, Miriam and her family were forced to move to the Munkacs ghetto in Ukraine. She describes how she stayed in an old brick building factory for about 5 weeks, her parents working to survive. Until they were deported via a train in cattle cars to Auschwitz, a large concentration located in Oswiecim, Poland. “ I went to the right and they to the left. My mother started to yell: "My Mirale, come to me, come to me." But the SS men were already pushing me forward with the butt of the guns ” (ushmm/Eshel). She relates how in Auschwitz on May 1944 she was separated from her family. The conditions in Auschwitz were horrific, it was full of misery and pain for Jews. She relates how she once found a human finger in her daily soup that they gave her, from that day forward every time she would sip a little of it she would then vomit. She stayed in Auschwitz until July and was then transported to Stutthof, a labor camp near Danzig, Poland. She worked tirelessly until the spring of 1945, where she was forced into a death march, where prisoners would be forced to march long distances in inhumane conditions. The

Sitting here alone at breakfast wondering where my sister could’ve gone, “I don’t know where my sister is, my friend is gone, I’ve only got myself,” this was the first thing that came to my mind while I was sitting in the back of the cafeteria,while I prayed. I pray that my sister is doing well, I pray that each child at this camp will soon see their family once more and I pray that one day each Jew will finally be free. Ring! Ring! Ring! Those were the bells that rang when we had to get to work. As I was digging the same smell from the fire returned, it was difficult to breath when the fog was coming my way and at that moment I knew that in the fire was the smell of burning children, my heart began to beat fast, I started to sweat and

It’s 1939 and France has been faced with bombing raids, executions and famine. Slowly a resistance started to shape, but against such an enemy we all knew that little would change. The population waited for liberation, living day by day under a control of an iron fist imposed by the collaboration of the Vichy government, the SS and Gestapo.

Starting in the summer of 1944 the Nazi were getting defeated and the war was almost over. When they realized that they would lose they wanted to get rid of all evidence of crimes, even the survivors. Nazi’s would burn the bodies of dead people and try to get rid of the camps but, there was still survivors who could tell people what they had happen to them so the Nazi’s walked them on death marches in worse conditions than in the camp. Over 250,000 people died on the marches but some lived to tell what happened and here is one of their stories.

There are presently two primary camps held by scholars of Vichy government and World War II in regards to the popular topic of France’s involvement in the oppression of its Jewish residents during World War II. One faction argues that the actions of the French during the German occupation of France were necessary to protect the nation, claiming that the occupation was one of accommodation. The second group argues that policy, at least for the first two years of the German occupation, was controlled by the new Vichy government and that the anti-Semitic legislation was supported by French politicians without Nazi persuasion; therefore, their occupation was one of collaboration or, at the very least, one of culpability. This project will examine

“We had no dreams of liberation; we hoped merely to destroy the camp and to die from bullets rather than from gas. We would not make it easy for the Germans” (Thomas Toivi Blatt). Escaping was on the mind of many captured Jews when they were transported to the death camp, Sobibór. Their vision came to life when they followed through with an escape on October 14, 1943. This revolt can be analyzed by contemplating the causes and effects, the escape itself, and the aftermath of those who revolted against the Germans.

Mama gave me this journal to keep feelings in. I have been so sad lately with grandfather getting sick. He is my whole world, he is the only one I trust with everything. I don’t know what I would do if he was gone. My grandfather has so many amazing stories that he tells all of his grandchildren, I’m the oldest grandchild. I’m going to tell you a secret, I’m grandfather’s favorite. We have always had a special connection with each other, I can tell him anything. I can trust him with my life!